If Alex Came Back We'd DEFINITELY Be The Local Power Couple [open post]

[summerdude]

Magnus has come to realize that nobody else in this entire place is presently in a relationship that has lasted nearly as long as his and Alex's. Shen Yuan's concept of "communication" "with" "Luo Binghe" is continuing to horrify him every time he thinks about it. What if there are other people who could use the advice of a sixteen-year-old twenty-five-year-old virgin who has been in a committed relationship for nearly seven years with someone to who he is probably widely known to have never verbally declared the undying depths of his love? (Gods, he hopes Alex figures out a way to do another little visit for their rapidly-approaching anniversary)

To that end, he posts an announcement sign over the welcome table, in the café, and on the door to the kitchen. It reads:

NEED RELATIONSHIP ADVICE OR FEEDBACK? Local Long-Term Relationship Expert Magnus Chase Offers His Aid.

He even lists office hours — an inoffensive parlor (meaning he can tolerate hanging out in it, and the door can close if people want privacy for their conversations) every other day for an hour, immediately following his Drosera hand-off to Galahad.

Comments

[untamedantinous]

He relents at that, and shakes his head with a grin. “Very well. There will be no violence, I assure you. Temeraire will also be there to make doubly sure.” There is a beat. “I do think you would enjoy yourself; though I do not know how many people intend to come.”

[sagramore]

"That is extraordinarily charming. Have we had Mexican food yet? Was there any at Wanderers Gather? I'm unfamiliar with the country."

[summerdude]

"Okay, then! I'll think about it." He'll go if Galahad goes.

[lightbearinglord]

In the interest of honesty, Lan Wangji does devote a moment to weighing the question. "When you asked me about declaring your love to Alex, I told you that I have loved one person all my life and could only recently bring myself to speak of it. That was true."

[summerdude]

"What do the vines taste like?" Magnus wonders, and then: "How did he convince someone to get rid of the food?"

[summerdude]

Magnus purses his lips. "Mostly I've been trying to get people to embrace the importance of open communication, I guess."

[summerdude]

Magnus gives Tally an assessing sort of look. "Are you a mind-reader?"

[timebethine]

"Then we're allies in this aim," says Laertes, sitting up straighter. "I've told Claudius more than once--I wish him to speak plainly to me, and not to lard his words with softening clauses to suggest that he had not said what he seemed to, or if he did, he did not mean it."

[summerdude]

"Remind me why?" Magnus asks. "Um, if you don't mind."

[sporesprouter]

"They're... fine, really? They need a lot of preparation time to make them able to be eaten, but they're... okay in a pinch." She looks thoughtful. "I wonder what could be done to make them actually tasty. Oh... right, that's beside the point. Another one of my crew had also gotten cursed by the Sorceress, earlier. He was still in his regular form but he had... Well, his thoughts were a bit jumbled, so when a rat told him it was very important to throw the marked food overboard, it must have been very important."

[summerdude]

"I don't think there was anything from any of the Americas," Magnus says, trying to remember. "Mexico is the country directly south of the one I come from. Alex's family is from there. Great food. Lots of corn, lots of chiles. Have you ever heard of tamales?"

[untamedantinous]

"Please do," he says, and it is truly genuine. "I would like to spend more time with you, and it is -- sometimes difficult for me to be social."

[sagramore]

"No, I don't know tamales. If I beg Laertes to try his hand at them, will I be usurping Lan Wangji? If he's learning to cook something special for you I don't want to steal any thunder."

[tallyyoungblood]

"What? No. I don't have magic or anything in my dimension." Where's he going with this?

[summerdude]

"Claudius?!" Magnus says, surprised, before he remembers some of Galahad's stories about Claudius and -- well, Grantaire, actually, but Magnus supposes where there's smoke, there's fire, or whatever. He course-corrects: "He's always super straightforward with me but I guess I'm no trying to be in a relationship with him. I think with some people though it can be hard to be emotionally vulnerable." Like Alex. Alex finds it hard to be emotionally vulnerable. So does Magnus, sometimes, but he's working on getting better at it.

[timebethine]

"I think I remind him of Elsinore," says Laertes, a little more softly. "It was not a place that rewarded honesty; to make disengagement easy was a kindness he learned to cultivate."

[summerdude]

"Oh dude, I'm not gonna gatekeep Mexican food," Magnus says. "I can actually fill and tie tamales like a pro, too, so I can even help Laertes out with that part. I can't make the masa or the filling very well, and I'd probably screw up actually steaming them, but it's like folding dumplings. Give me something to stuff and wrap and I can do it for hours." Something occurs to him, and he grins. "Or maybe we could get Hanguang-jun in on it, too, and start practicing for round-robin potlucks."

[sagramore]

"I actually think this is a brilliant idea. Laertes needs more help and more rest -- perhaps you and I and his lordship can be students together."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji's expression turns almost helpless. Where to begin? He straightens his back, although he was not remotely slouching, and glances down at his hands again. "Circumstances were complicated," he says, at length. "We were young. By the time I found my voice, it was too late."

[summerdude]

"This Sorceress sounds like bad news," Magnus says. "Did you have to fight her?"

[summerdude]

Whoa. Hanging out with two whole adult-shaped adults simultaneously? Magnus is so curious to see how they bounce off each other. Maybe he can kick Laertes under the table about it while they fold tamales. "I'm so in," he says, emphatically, and then, back to a part of the conversation he'd put a pin in, a few minutes ago: "Hey, maybe folding food can be my new thing that I make. That new guy started teaching me cooler ways to mend my clothes than how I did it when I was homeless, but I ran out of holes to fix. And I think I've given up on knitting, for now. Dro is way too interested in the yarn to try to get better at knitting more than, like, accidental loofahs."

[summerdude]

"He died before you got up the nerve to tell him?" Magnus guesses.

[summerdude]

"Then why should you have known something Shay didn't tell you?"

[summerdude]

"Have you told him you don't like that? Like, I mean -- how do you tell him to speak plainly?"

[summerdude]

"Because I'm, like, Outside Guy and you're Cafe Guy?" Magnus asks. "Or do you mean, like, you'd rather just be in a crowd of people who are all talking so that you don't have to talk unless you feel like it?"